“I treasure your word in my heart” (Ps 119:11).
Do you have a favourite Bible verse? Words that you treasure in your heart and which you return to in times of joy, sorrow or just for inspiration? I have a few, but one of my favourites is from Matthew 10:16: “See, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” This verse has always appealed to me. It seems to sum up what it is like to go through life – being alert and wise to what is around us, but also being harmless, doing no evil, being kind: loving our neighbour as ourself.
I have many other passages which I turn to at various times: Psalms 121 and 139; 1 Corinthians 13; and others. So, what words of Scripture do you treasure in your heart? And why? I ask because treasuring the words of Scripture is important this week: it is Bible Sunday: a day to think about Scripture, about the Bible and what it means to us, how we are to approach it, use it, treasure it. I know many who decorate the pages in their Bible that contain the words that they treasure in their hearts – and these people use the words to inspire art which embeds the meaning of the words. Others may have sticky notes or bookmarks throughout their Bible, marking those passages they turn to for hope, inspiration, comfort. And isn’t it wonderful that we have this book to read, in our own language, translated into many languages so that “we hear, each of us, in our own native language” (Acts 2:8)? The message of the Bible has been for everyone to hear since Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit on the disciples emboldening them to speak: “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages”. The message is for all people at all times and in all places.
So it is that this year we remember William Tyndale, who was martyred for bringing the Scripture to the people of England through his translation of the Gospels in 1526. But why did it take such struggle and suffering to persuade the Church to allow all people the opportunity to hear and read the Good News in their own language? After all, it was only 12 years later that the Great Bible was published, commissioned by Henry VIII in 1538. What was the Church afraid of? Perhaps the same thing that slave owners were afraid of when they tried to prevent their slaves from hearing all the message of the Gospel – the message of equality before God, of freedom, as Paul tells the Galatians: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). And of course, there are the most powerful words from the Magnificat, which tells of God’s raising up the lowly, exalting the humble and meek and bringing the rich and powerful back down to earth, to God’s reality. The Bible is a powerful treasure filled with hope and love and joy and challenge: it is a book which cries freedom to those who are enslaved, oppressed, poor, marginalised. No wonder the rich and powerful have tried to control it, suppress it, restrict its message!
Now, of course, the bible has many translations – nearly 800 translations of the Bible have been made, with more that 1800 versions of the New Testament, the Gospels and Good News. People can read and find the words to treasure in their hearts in so many different languages. But the Bible requires more than just reading. It requires us, in the words of the collect for this Sunday, “to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” the Holy Scriptures: to take them to our heart but also to understand them both in their context then and in our context now – as when Ezra read the Scriptures to the people in front of the Temple: “the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding” and “So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading” (Nehemiah 8:2,8). We need to listen with understanding, to seek to develop our understanding by study of what we hear, and we are to be willing to seek to interpret what we hear for today, for our situations and for our world.
The Bible is powerful. It is the Word, the Word of God given to us through human writers, prophets, scribes, Gospel writers, apostles and saints. It is inspiring and has inspired many throughout the ages, and if it is read to seek understanding, with interpretation and with love and respect, it is inspiring and a guiding light for us to treasure in our hearts. So, continue to seek those favourite verses, perhaps have a look and see if there our more verse that you can treasure in your hearts. And as you read the Word, remember that those verses are there to help us understand God, understand God’s vision for creation and for all humanity, and to help us follow Christ’s example and obey his commands. And so, I ask that God will “help us to so hear (the Scriptures), to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of God’s holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Revd Jackie Sellin